


Ghost of the Past

by siephilde42



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Being the adoptive parents of God has its perks, Don't copy to another site, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Castiel/Dean Winchester, Guilt, Human Castiel (Supernatural), M/M, Not Canon Compliant, The past catches up with Dean, There is also pie, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:16:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27975692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siephilde42/pseuds/siephilde42
Summary: Jacob Pond does look Dean up to kill him. Cas, of course, will not have it.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39





	Ghost of the Past

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place in the universe of my Rainbow Wings series (Cas is human, Jack is God), but can be read as standalone. I did not include it in the series because I want to keep the overall tone of the series lighter than this.

**THEN**

Dean turns around, knife still in hand. When he looks out of the door, he sees a boy.

In an instant, the boy takes in the scene, his mother lying on the bed, dead, and the man with the knife in the hand.

When Dean asks the boy "You got someone you can go to?", his face does not betray any emotion.

The boy nods.

"You ever kill anyone?"

The boy shakes his head.

"Well, if you do, I'll come back for you."

"The only person I'm gonna kill is you."

"Well, look me up in a few years. Assuming I live that long." Dean walks out, pauses briefly at the door to glance back at the boy, who is hunched over his mother's body.

**NOW**

"Who are you?", Cas asks, groaning. His head hurts. He tries to remember what happened. He had come from work and opened the door, and... and then, apparently, he was clubbed from behind.

"A ghost of the past", the intruder says. It is a young man, maybe around twenty years old.

"The past?" Cas tries to struggle free, but the young man is obviously very good at tying knots. All he manages is to almost topple over the chair.

"Dean's past, not yours", the man clarifies. "I don't know you."

"No", Cas bursts out when he realizes what the man came for. "No."

\-------------------------

"Ghost of the past"

\-------------------------

Dean is humming in the car on the way home. _I love that job_ , he thinks. _Bit late today, but, heh, I brought pie. And we have still some casserole left, haven't we?_ Arriving at the parking spot in front of their home, he gets out, still humming. "Who wants to live forever - Ooh - There's no chance for us - It's all decided for us - " He takes out the pie from the car and opens the house door. "Angel, I'm home."

When he sees the scene in the living room, he drops the pie box and freezes.

"What -"

"Good evening, Mr. Winchester", the young man says, holding a knife to Cas' throat.

"W- Who are you?", Dean asks, his eyes flickering over Cas' body to assess if he is fine.

Aside from being horrified, as his eyes clearly tell, and being tied and gagged, Cas seems to be okay.

"You told me to look you up."

Something in Dean's mind clicks. "Jacob Pond?", he says, his voice uncharacteristically quiet.

"So you _do_ remember me."

 _Not like that is a thing you ever could forget._ "Of course I do."

Cas attempts to say something, but fails.

After a short moment of hesitation, Jacob takes the gag off to let Cas speak.

"Don't do this", Cas beseeches him. "Don... Don't kill him. Leave Dean alone, _please_."

Jacob ignores him, stares at Dean.

Dean stares back at him. "So, did you kill anyone else?"

The young man shakes his head. "No. Like I said, I'll kill only you."

Dean glances down at the hand holding the knife to Cas' throat. "Then you should not break your promise now." He swallows. "Just... Just leave Cas be and come over here. I... I'm over here."

When Jacob does leave Cas, Dean gets into a defensive position rather than an attack position, and Cas realizes that this one might not end with young Pond being the dead one on the floor.

Jacob takes another step towards Dean.

"Dean, _no_ ", Cas calls out, but Dean still does not show any sign of preparing for charging at Jacob.

Jacob takes yet another step.

"No!", Cas yells. His eyes flicker towards Dean, then upward. "Jack, fix this, _please_. Just... Just this once", he begs.

There is a whoosh, and Jacob turns around, startled. "Who the hell are you?", he asks, knife pointed at the other young man. 

"Jack Kline. Hi", he says, smiling and giving him a small wave.

"Jack, _please_ fix this", Cas repeats.

"I cannot", Jack replies, still smiling. "I will not mess with free will." He looks over at Dean. "However, I can help _you_ fix it", he says and snaps his fingers.

With a start, Dean finds himself in front of a motel.

Jack is standing beside him.

Dean wishes his adoptive son would just stop smiling. "Jack, what did you do?"

"I brought you back to the time and location. It is up to you to stop him."

Realization dawns on Dean, and he rushes into the motel room, where his younger self is approaching Amy Pond.

"No!", he calls out. "Leave her alone!"

Younger Dean turns around. "You're... _what?_ "

"I'm _you_ from the future. No shapeshifter or anything, don't get any funny ideas. Listen... Listen, you'll always regret this. And if you do it, her son will come for you in a few years, break into your home and kill you in front of..." He breaks off. _Too much information._ _Spoilers._

"What the hell?", Younger Dean says, bewildered. He does not seem to be convinced.

Older Dean takes a deep breath. "Just... don't." He is pleading now. "Just don't." He can see the resolve in his younger self's face crumbling a bit, but not quite enough.

At this moment, the boy comes in. "Mom?"

The face of Younger Dean changes completely in an instant. For a while he is just standing there, staring at the boy. Then he runs out, almost knocking over the boy in the process.

"Hey!", the boy protests, then turning towards Amy. "Mom, are you okay?"

"Yes... I think", she replies, staring at Dean. "You're not going to kill me, I take it?", she asks, her voice still shaky.

"Oh no. No, I won't", He laughs awkwardly. "Anyway, I should be on my way." Dean walks out, pauses briefly at the door to glance back at the boy and his mother.

The moment he steps out of the door, he finds himself in the middle of his living room again.

Cas is standing, looking at him with a confused expression. "Dean, what just happened? You were there a moment ago and then you were not." He glances over to Jack. "And you are here. Jack, _what...._ "

Dean, in turn, is also looking at him in confusion. "What, don't you remember..."

"No", Jack cuts in. "He does not remember because it never happened."

"Oh..." Dean can feel a major headache incoming. He glances around. There is nobody there expect Cas, Jack and him.

"And because it never happened, Jacob is not here, of course", Jack adds.

The headache is getting worse. "Of course", Dean replies, pinching his forehead.

"Jacob? Who is Jacob?"

"Why... Why do _I_ remember?" Dean asks, confounded.

"Because you are the one who went back into the past to stop it."

This does not help Cas' confusion at all. "Stop _what_?"

Dean looks at Cas. "Long story."

*

Some time later, Jack has left, and Dean and Cas are lying in bed, cuddling.

"You know, you _cheated_ ", Dean mutters.

"Hm?", Cas asks, his arms wrapped around Dean.

"We all agreed that Jack's hands-off approach was the best one. But you called him here to fix this mess."

Cas sighs. "I guess I could not bear it to lose you like that way. I mean, natural causes are another story. But to think you should die as a result of a hateful act, after all that we have been through..."

"The things Amy and Jacob did... I would have done the same", Dean blurts out. "I, I would have killed innocent people too. If if meant saving you or Sam. And I'd have looked for vengeance too, if I had lost someone I love like this."

"Dean, you thought you were doing the right thing."

"That's just it", Dean exclaims, turning around to face Cas. "Even as I did it, I had doubts. And. And then I saw the boy..." His voice trails off.

"Dean, you _fixed_ it", Cas reminds him. He reaches out, touching Dean's face. "You fixed it."

"Yes. But I still did it, originally. I'll never forget her face when I stabbed her. Or her boy's face." 

"I daresay it would be a bad thing if you did."

"Right", Dean mumbles. "I suppose that is true."

"Let's go to sleep."

"All right. Good night, angel."

"Good night, Dean", Cas says, kissing his forehead.

Dean does not sleep at all afterwards, the original event in the motel playing in his mind over and over on a loop. Deep in the night, he suddenly remembers something else entirely. _The pie. If it never happened, I never dropped it. Where is it?_ He gets up and finds the pie on the kitchen counter. Despite himself, he laughs. "There you are."

"Dean?", he hears a drowsy voice from behind. Apparently Cas has noticed him leaving the bed.

"I found pie", Dean explains, already getting two spoons from the drawer. He turns around to smile at Cas.

"Ah. Yes. The pie. You want to eat it now?" Cas frowns.

"If I cannot sleep I might as well eat something."

"True", Cas admits, reaching for Dean's hand with the spoon.

"Dig in, angel."

**Author's Note:**

> Lyrics from "Who wants to live forever" by Queen
> 
> ========================================
> 
> If you'd like to scream over Destiel, Saileen or the show in general with me, you can follow me under @loves_deancas on Twitter. (My other Twitter account @siephilde42 is mainly for Good-Omens related content.)


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